Blog

Dear friends,

Warm greetings from all of us at YES! who greatly appreciate your support in mobilizing young leaders who work to create a brighter future on this planet.  The summer season here has offered us with many opportunities to reflect on, celebrate in, and activate around the spirit that drives our work.  Our recent activities include:

- evolving as a more effective collaborative organization where we continue to bring heartful conversation and important practice around accountability, decision making, and commitment/actualization.  And, we are dealing with a difficult budget situation together with trust and transparency while holding our mission sovereign.

- gathering with old and new friends in San Francisco to honor YES!’s 20th Anniversary.  It was a sweet reunion and connection time for many of us, providing a commemorative pause (and for some, a moment to dance as well!) in this journey.  Thank you to all who sent in congratulatory wishes and attended the party.

By Ocean Robbins, Founder and Co-Director

The Arava Institute is a sustainability themed postgraduate program that brings together Palestinian, Jordanian, Israeli and International students to learn about environmental conversation and sustainability while living in peace and cooperation.  The Arava Alumni Peace and Environmental Network (AAPEN) is a group of some 500 graduates of the intensive Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES) program.  AAPEN members all share the common experience of living and studying at the AIES for 4 months to 2 years.  They have already established a common ground through the environment and have come to the conclusion that the way to peace includes listening to and respecting the other's narrative and nurturing personal and honest relationships across the divides. If mobilized well, these experienced “bridge builders” can act as an incredible force of influence within their own communities and well beyond.

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By Shilpa Jain, LPSC Jam Facilitator

The redwoods are great teachers.  They stay firmly rooted in the soil, they grow in community with one another, and they reach for the sky...  They were an inspiration and a reminder to us as we journeyed through the 8th Annual Leveraging Privilege for Social Change Jam.  From July 25 until August 1, 2010, 28 young leaders gathered at the Quaker Center in Ben Lomond, CA. We hailed from 15 different US states, as well as Canada and Mexico, and worked on issues ranging from social entrepreneurship, to alternative education, to food justice, and much more.

By Shilpa Jain, Global Collaborative Coordinator

It's out -- "No Way Out, Many Ways Forward" -- the long-awaited compilation of World Jammers' stories, edited by members of the Global Youth Leadership Collaborative (GC).  Joining it is 'Connect. Inspire. Collaborate' -- a YES! Jams facilitation manual, which contains 130 activities, as well as guidelines, that have been useful in nearly 20 years of YES! Jams, workshops, and youth camps.  Both books we believe will serve as tremendous learning resources for the Jam community and beyond.  Please contact Shilpa to get your copies today!

By Laura Carver, YEA Camp Co-Organizer

We're thrilled to report that Youth Empowered Action (YEA) Camp 2010 in California was a HUGE success!  Following our pilot camp in 2009, YEA added two sessions at the Quaker Center in Ben Lomond, CA for 2010.  We're currently gearing up for our first camp in Oregon which runs August 14-21st.  Over 40 youth aged 11 to 16 will have participated in YEA Camp by the end of this summer, and we're excited to see how we grow for next year! Campers this summer came from six states (including Florida, New Hampshire and Connecticut!) and 29 cities and towns to join us at camp.

At our camps, youth get to connect with other young people and staff who care about the world and want to make a difference on important issues.  They get powerful leadership training so that they can have an even bigger impact in their schools and in their communities.

By Ocean Robbins, Founder and Co-Director, Middle East Jam Facilitator

The Middle East is a region of profound cultural, ecological, and spiritual significance in the world today.  With hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on military conflict, and thousands of years of deep and guiding spiritual and cultural underpinnings, it is a place of deep violence and deep love.  I feel it is a strategic intervention point in the building of a more healthy, just and compassionate future.  Other program organizers recognize it as their home, and find extraordinary value in convening with peers who are woven in the same cultural fabric, and who are working for a world of peace and human dignity.

A Call to Artists, Activists, Students

The money that is being spent on the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has reached $1 TRILLION. How would you spend $1 TRILLION?

That’s what a new video contest for 13-23-year-olds is asking.

YOU can help us spread the word. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and National Priorities Project (NPP) are sponsoring a youth video project to help young people (high school and college age) enter the cost of war discussion. Share your ideas about what you would do - for yourself, your family and your community - with $1 trillion by making a short (1-3 minute) video by NOVEMBER 30, 2010.

If you are age 13-23 or work with youth and want to help support their voice, this is a chance to get involved by making a video with the theme "If I Had a Trillion Dollars..."

You can download the Outreach Packet and Curriculum by clicking here.

The Rules:

·       Entries must be produced by youth between the ages of 13 and 23.

The 2nd annual Middle East Jam took place October 19-26 in Jordan's southern desert.  Anas Alabbadi, the project's Jordanian host, wrote an in-depth report on the Jam, which I share here.  To download the full report, click here.

I got this request from Caite Mathis, Life Coach at Turtle Island Coaching, who is calling on the YES! alumni community for some insight into the movement of our times. Check out her note and contact her directly here if you want to get involved! Thanks, Caite!

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I am a life coach and theater director, mainly interested in mentoring the Millenial generation.  I am writing a book called "The Way Forward:  How to
Craft a Brilliant but Different Life in Times of Great Change."  This is
aimed a middle of the road to liberal Millenial generation,  high school and
college.  Its not preaching to the environmentally tuned choir, though it
will be equally helpful to them. 

I want to find:

1) Millenial or Gen Y models whose lives reflect thinking outside the box and responsibility for making a difference